MALTA: Schools prep for AMD

As ground is being broken and water-work getting under way, area school districts are preparing for the $3.2 billion microchip plant Advanced Micro Devices has proposed for the Luther Forest Technology Park in Malta.

The Ballston Spa school district, which has 4,440 students, includes Malta. At the Wednesday, June 6, meeting of the Ballston Spa Board of Education, school board president Kathy Jarvis said her district is doing what it can to prepare for the chip fab plant.

Part of that is hoarding land, she said.

Land in the future will not be here as soon as AMD gets here. Even now, land is being scooped up, even if we don't use the land, Jarvis said. "Burnt Hills and Shen have done that. Sooner rather than later, the land will be gone. There will be future growth."

She said even if the district has no immediate plans for the land, it should buy it before someone else does.

Jarvis said last July, she and board vice president N. Keith Stewart, high school principal Kristi Jensen, and Superintendent Ray Colucciello attended a workforce development conference in Oregon that was arranged by SEDC and the International Alliance of Nanotechnology Regions. The main theme of the conference was how to educate the workforce that the high tech jobs at AMD will require.

Saratoga Springs City School District Superintendent John MacFadden said his school district will continue to provide the good preparation to its students that it always has. At the June 12 meeting of the Saratoga Springs City School District, he announced that the district was ranked ninth in the state by The Business Review based on state exams and graduation rates.

"I am pleased to report that Saratoga Springs is in the top 10 schools," MacFadden said. "Over the past 20 to 25 years, we've shown that we can compete with the Capital Region school districts and beyond."